Smoking Bannification
Chicago has recently come up with, what one would think would be good, smoking bans.
I say this as a non-smoker, of course. I fully entitle you to your right to smoke… but I hate that stuff and all the stink and clogged lungs that come with it. Just so you know where I stand, at least.
The latest smoking ban has taken place on our public transportation. No smoking in the train garage (which means I no longer have to inhale your second-hand smoke AND the crap that’s coming off of the trains).
Oh yeah–there’s also no smoking at the entranceways to buildings.
I thought this would be a good one. I remember the walk to my Starbucks and the “Carcinogen Corner” as I had dubbed that entranceway. It was amusing to me–and very frustrating at the same time. Didn’t seem fair to me that I’d have to clamor through the smokers stankifying the entrance way so they could huddle together for warmth.
Now, however, smokers can no longer congregate in these doorways… They have to be at least 15 feet away from said doorways.
This means that smokers are now entirely strewn across the walkways before and after entranceways–effectively the entire length of some buildings. This means I cannot escape second-hand smoke no matter what I do!
So, much like the effectiveness of Cook County’s “No Cell Phone Usage While Driving Unless You Have A Headset” law/ordinance–of which I counted no less than 18 violations of today on my 3-block walk to the train station–this one seems to backfire very much.
People are going to smoke. If you want to keep it out of restaurants… great. Keeping it out of bars borders on retarded. Keeping it out of doorways is in effective. Just keep them out of closed spaces where we’ll get stuck with it.
Revisit these worthless pieces of legislation or fully enforce them. Don’t put it on the books and then let it disappear like those stupid laws of “No Walking With A Pig On Tuesdays” and shit.
You hear me?
March 1st, 2006 at 3:40 pm
I’ve been wondering when the anti-smoking nannystaters are going to figure out that the smoking bans are stupid.
The 15 feet rule either puts the poor saps in the middle of the street, or as you saw, strewn along the sidewalks. All that does is either get them squooshed, or force the rest of us into smoke gauntlets.
I think they should ditch the bans in restaurants, too. Even though I hate smoke, I value private property and think that business owners should make their own decisions as to who does what on their premises.
Sort of like the birth control/pharmacists thing you brought up a while back.
March 1st, 2006 at 9:22 pm
I don’t know. I, for one, am glad for the ban in restaurants around here, because it means that I can actually go out and enjoy myself. (That, and not be sick and cyanic for the next two weeks…)
I suppose I wouldn’t be so adamant in my stance if I didn’t stand such a high chance of dying at the drop of a hat. /: